


Out of Ten

by Methoxyethane



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, M/M, Pre-Slash, Season 3 Spoilers, just flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 07:39:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14039412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methoxyethane/pseuds/Methoxyethane
Summary: Out of all of the Harrison Wells's Cisco has met, Harry is definitely his favorite.





	Out of Ten

It’s not that Cisco had never thought he’d SEE Harry again, not when they had a speedster dating his daughter as an excuse to keep contact through dimensions. Even the idea of ever working with him again seemed like it was bound to happen sometime or another, being friends with a Harrison Wells was pretty useful when it came to the adventures in superscience they tended to play with on a day to day basis.

But what Cisco HADN’T expected was to like…  _ keep  _ him. Even though it had totally been his idea in the first place, that had been kind of an impulsive whim he had not expected Harry to actually agree to, you know? Yeah his only friends were here in this dimension but he still had like, a house and a billion dollar company back home he could distract himself with if his daughter wouldn’t let him play on her Flash team. If you thought about it, it was kind of unreasonable to assume Harry WOULD stay on Earth-1. He slept in a STAR labs basement, for chrissake.

Or at least he  _ had,  _ until he’d given up and gotten an apartment on the east end of town and hey why not a fake identity and credit line to go with it so he could stop pawning off Earth-2 tech for money to buy Big Belly Burger and at this point Cisco was forced to consider that Harry was actually legitimately… STAYING.

The weird part now, was that it wasn’t actually weird at all. Having him back, that is. In the lab, in Cisco’s workshop, just in Cisco’s life in general, having Harry back felt… Natural. Like things were finally normal again.

Which was ridiculous, because Harry wasn’t actually the Harrison Wells Cisco had spent the most time with. He’d known the fake Thawne-Wells for YEARS, had loved the man like his own family, and then they’d hung out with poor noble H.R. for like, nearly as long as they’d spent with Harry, so it was kind of dumb that HE was the version of Harrison Wells that made STAR labs feel… like home again, or whatever.

But then again, Harry was the only version of Harrison Wells Cisco had ever actively shared his workshop with. That was… they’d spent a LOT of time together, the two of them. 

H.R. wasn’t - hadn’t been a scientist, and Eobard Wells The Murderface had been… too  _ distant  _ to ever lower himself to getting his hands dirty with grease and electrical burns with Cisco working out a new tech problem. Harry was, by far, the one Cisco had spent the most actual one-on-one time with, because Harry was the only one who Cisco had ever actually been like, lab partners with. 

Okay that sounded lame but the bond of a lab partner was VERY important to nerds. A lab partner was like, an equal you shared ideas with, someone you had to meld minds with in order to solve impossible problems. It was an important unspoken bond that had kept he and Caitlin tight for years, yo. Really, it was really no wonder Harry was the Wells Cisco was closest to when you thought about it. 

A clatter of plastic against metal rang through the lab as a mug full of markers was thrown clear across Cisco’s table. “How am I supposed to get anything done around here when this planet’s technology is so backwards it can’t even keep a cell phone charged!”

Even if pretty much all of said time together had been spent arguing. Arguments were  surprisingly intimate when you had them so often with one person that you ended up learning about every single little thing that ticked them off. Which, for Harry was you know. Everything-ish.

“The cord’s under my hoodie on the counter dude,” Cisco offered, unable to keep his mouth from curling up at the edge with amusement. “You can still use it when it’s plugged in and everything.”

Harry made a dismissive gesture/noise combo to signify that his shitty phone was not actually the point of anything. Probably true, since him not being able to charge his Earth-2 phone with Earth-1 cords was a problem that pretty much only prevented him from skyping his daughter across the breach, who’d be too busy to answer right now anyway. Harry was just being pissy because that’s what Harry did.

That was probably what made it so easy to accept this whole same-face-different-person thing and not get flashbacks of Thawne’s murder face every time Cisco looked at a Harrison Wells. He’d met six… Five and a very convincing fake versions of Wells and every one of them had a completely different personality. Wait, the Wizard Wells when they were looking for H.R, and there had also been like, a cowboy? Good lord were they up to eight Wells’s? That was WAY too many.

“Dr. Wells” the original had groomed himself to be a mentor. A false father figure, a wise and loving teacher who at the same time came off being just cold and distant enough to discourage anyone from getting too close and figuring out that he was a fake time traveling speedster who could actually walk perfectly fine. And Cisco had already had months to come to terms with the fact that he’d never known the real Harrison Wells, so when The Real Harrison Wells (Sort Of) showed up… Well, all the time travel and blackhole and meta stuff had already gotten Cisco used to his life being comic-book level nonsense.

It helped that Harry was a huge dick. Where Thawne had been unreadable Harry was completely transparent with his emotions, yelling and insulting and throwing things when he was mad. And he was obvious about that smug kind of happiness he got when he proved himself correct about something, and the pride he had in Jessie, and he showed how terrified and unhinged he got when she was in danger, because where Thawne was a fucking sociopath Harry loved so deeply and so much it had practically destroyed him when he thought he lost his daughter.

It hadn’t been nearly as hard as it should have to see Harry as a completely different person from “Dr. Wells.” There were still… THINGS they had in common, mannerisms and facial expressions and the tone of voice they used when scolding Barry about his time-fucking habits could be absolutely identical, and sometimes working side by side with Harry could just be creepy as hell for a few deja-vu filled seconds. Until he used that deep gruff voice “Wells” had never used to call him Ramon instead of Cisco and the spell would be broken, Harry and Harrison split into the two seperate people they were in Cisco’s mind once more.

HR had been downright easy to get used to, after that. The guy was so far off from the other Wells’ in body language that he looked more like their idiot cousin than their doppleganger, and Cisco had never ONCE managed to mix him up with either Thawne or Harry in his head. Weirdly enough, that made it even easier to see Harry as Harry than before when he came back, like HR had been the palette cleanser to wash all traces of deja vu off of Harry until he and Thawne-Wells were so far apart in Cisco’s mind that now it threw him off for a second when someone mistook Harry for the locally infamous criminal and attacked him (because that was a thing that didn’t actually like, stop happening).

“So, care to enlighten the audience as to what your panties are in a bunch about? Unless you’re actually that mad at your phone, because if that’s the case I don’t wanna be involved in the anger management courses you so desperately need.”

The scoff Harry made was epic, and he continued pacing around the room in irritation. “What has got me _ bunched up _ , Ramon, is that I don’t have the tools I need to accomplish anything in this lab! I have spent the entirety of my career ruthlessly pursuing the truth of the universe, and now that I have the entire multiverse at my fingertips your pathetic timeline doesn’t even have CF quark technology yet!”

Cisco bit off the end of his twizzler, considering this. “So, you’re pissy because your bored and can’t think of a pet project, huh? I feel that dude, my boredom leads to bad ideas like Cold Guns.” A scientist’s  _ real  _ worst enemy was a total lack of ideas, man, and Cisco had suffered many hours of that particular agony.

Harry’s answer was to throw himself into his chair on his half of the workshop like a dramatic teenage girl. “I am directionless, I am useless, and there is nothing good on Earth-1 television. Why am I even in this universe, Ramon?”

He kicked off his own chair to roll over towards Harry with a sympathetic, “Aw c’mon dude, having actual friends isn’t a good enough reason on it’s own? You know something else ridiculous will show up and make us break our brains on how to fix it in no time, this is Central City! We totally need you around for when the shit teleports in from another dimension to hit the fan.”

A roll of unfairly blue eyes. “Yes of course, always good to be the spare Harrison Wells for emergency situations.”

“Hey, you’re not a spare, dude,” Cisco admonished cheerfully. “You’re totally my  _ favorite  _ Harrison Wells, and I’m up to like, five and a half of you guys now.”

That one seemed to actually give him pause, and Harry looked up at Cisco with a single eyebrow quirked up. “As… flattering as that thought is, I find it a little hard to believe. I’m not even Jessie’s favorite anymore.”

“Well yeah, that’s ‘cause every version of Harrison Wells is totally awful,” Cisco shrugged. “But you’re the only one who I’ve ever shared a lab space like this with, all up-close and personal style, so you’re the one I’ve the most fun with. You’re awful, but you’ve got a lot of good points too we were bound of pick up on. I mean like, look at Jessie. She’s a rich beautiful genius with an obsessive dad, she should logically be totally spoiled and insufferable, but instead she’s like completely awesome. That says a lot about you as far as I’m concerned.”

“She just takes after her mother,” Harry denied instantly, like his own parenting was irrelevant in the face of genetics.

“Whom I understand hasn’t been… around for over ten years to help raise her,” Cisco offered as delicately as he could. “It’s just been the two of you since then, she may not always wanna be around you but your daughter loves you to all hell and back, dude. And the fact that you love her enough to uh. You know, kill people or whatever, is actually one of your best qualities! Other than the Turtle-murder part. Which was bad. But we forgive you, because Joe would probably have done the same thing so it seems like one of those Dad Things.”

Harry stared at him blankly, like he regretted this conversation ever having started. “So I’m the most favored version because you like Jessie and I’m the only Wells who managed to procreate.”

“Well that’s not…” This guy sure knew how to make every conversation difficult, didn’t he? Why WAS he Cisco’s favorite, again? Not sure what else he could say other than awkwardly ending this conversation as fast as possible, Cisco ended up shrugging. “Also, you’re the only hot one?”

A startled pause. “I’m the what now?”

“The hot one,” Cisco repeated casually, because it was too late to un-say and was also true.

“...We have identical genetics, Cisco.”

“Yeah, but. Pulse rifle.” He felt like that should be an explanation in and of itself. Everyone knew badasses were sexy, and Harry didn’t even like sleeping without that gun in reach anymore. Like, damn, bro.

Harry look like he still thought Cisco was insane, which, yeah he already know about his problems with self-loathing so big surprise. “But yeah, no. You’re fun to have in the lab and even though you’re a huge dick I know you’re a good person, and uh, that’s why you’re my favorite.”

After a bit of silence, Harry did quietly concede “Proximity does build fondness, and uh… I suppose you did end up being the most entertaining part of staying on this Earth.” 

“Noice,” Cisco said, because he had to combat Harry’s annoying slang with his own as much as possible.

Temper tantrum successfully quelled and now mildly frazzled, Harry wandered off to snatch up the yPhone adapter cord and plug his phone in. 

“Heh,” Cisco chuckled to himself as he turned back to his own tinkering. “When I pile all those compliments in a row like that, makes it sound like I’ve got a crush on you.”

The silence at that comment was the confusing part. Cisco had kind of said it as a way to leave a door open for a joke, but Harry had found no jabs to take and left an even worse quiet than any before in the empty space. 

Cisco flickered his eyes back to Harry. He wasn’t facing him anymore, but from here Cisco could see the red-tinted flush of heat spreading across the back of Harry’s neck up to his ears. 

Huh, look at that. Maybe it wasn’t Cisco who had a crush after all.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little crackfic to get me to start writing again after my slump


End file.
